Haunting Past
by Raven-Evelyn
Summary: This is a story based on the new Avengers movie with plenty of action, suspense, sibling rivalry, and even some Hawkeye/OC romance. Rated T for language and violence. I don't own anything to do with the Avengers unfortunately.
1. Chapter 1

_Director Fury and Dr. Erik Selvig were walking together, "No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's…misbehaving," Selvig explained._

_ "How soon until you pull the plug?" Fury wanted to know._

_ "She's an energy source. If we turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level…"_

_ "We've prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space."_

_ "We don't have the harness. My calculations are far from complete. Now she's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, just low levels of gamma radiation."_

_ "That can be harmful. Where's Agent Barton?"_

_ Selvig snorted, "The Hawk? Up in his nest as usual."_

_ Fury radioed Agent Barton, "Agent Barton, report to me." Clint came down from his so called nest to join Fury on the floor. "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things," Fury reprimanded Clint._

_ "Well I see better from a distance," Clint replied calmly._

_ "Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?" Fury asked as a scientist called something to Selvig about the cube which was pulsing with a blue light._

_ Barton shook his head answering, "No one's come or gone. Selvig's clean. No contacts no I.M.'s. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."_

_ Fury stopped and looked at Clint, "At this end?"_

_ "Yeah the cube is a doorway to the other end of space right?" Clint reasoned. "Doors open from both sides." Just then the Tesseract pulsed a few times before loosing a blue bolt of energy that turned into a wave opening up a portal. Once the smoke cleared a tall long haired man was on one knee underneath the portal dressed in strange clothes and carrying some sort of spear. He slowly stood up grinning evilly. Fury commanded him to put down the spear but all the stranger did was look down at the spear before shooting an exploding blue light at Clint and Fury who dove out of the way. The SHIELD agents attacked the intruder who responded in kind with more blasts of energy from his spear. If Clint hadn't dived out of the way he would have been hit. Clint got up and attacked the stranger who blocked the blow._

_ "You have heart," he commented as he placed the tip of his spear over Clint's chest. Clint froze his eyes turning to solid black as blue light spidered up his neck to turn his eyes Tesseract blue making him fall under some form of mind control. Clint put his gun away as the intruder turned to other SHIELD agents that were nearby as Fury attempted to leave with the Tesseract. "Please don't. I still need that." The intruder turned to Fury his voice silky smooth._

_ Fury stopped but didn't turn, "This doesn't have to get any messier."_

_ "Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."_

_ Selvig looked over startled, "Loki? Brother of Thor?"_

_ Fury turned keeping a tight grip on the case containing the Tesseract, "We have no quarrel with your people."_

_ "An ant has no quarrel with a boot." Loki countered._

_ "You planning to step on us?"_

_ "I come with glad tidings of a world made free."_

_ "Free from what?"_

_ "Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart…" Loki spun and placed his spear on Selvig's chest to put him under his mind control. "You will know peace." Clint looked up at the ceiling which was starting to crumble._

_ "Sir, Director Fury is stalling." Clint informed Loki walking over. "This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of raw materials. He means to bury us."_

_ "Like the Pharaohs of old," Fury agreed._

_ Selvig looked up from a computer confirming what Clint had said, "He's right the portal is collapsing in on itself. You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."_

_ "Drop him," Loki ordered Clint who shot Fury. He then picked up the case as he, Loki, Selvig and the other controlled agents left. Clint gave the case to Selvig and took the lead heading towards the cars. Fury then sat up and as the first pieces of the building fell to the ground with a crash…_

_Thud. _Raven woke with a start when she rolled off of her cot onto the floor. She fought her way out of the blankets that had somehow twisted around her when she was thrashing around. She sat up dripping with sweat gasping, "Nigel. Clint." She stood up looking around, "Now where did I put my phone? I've got to warn them that Loki might be coming to the research facility for the Tesseract. But it might have already happened. Or might not even happen. Ugh." She put her head in her hand feeling a headache coming on. "I hate this stupid ability that's more of a curse. It stops me from getting a good night's sleep and isn't very explanatory." Raven spotted her phone on the small fold up table. She picked it up and then wanted to throw it across the small room that she was staying in for the night crying indignantly, "No signal?!" She then laughed harshly, "Of course there's no bloody signal. I'm in freakin' Antarctica." She sighed and put her phone down before pulling her long raven hair into a bun at the back of her head. Raven pulled on her white fur lined parka that would help her blend into the Antarctic wilderness and as she did so she caught a glimpse of her pale complexion in the mirror. Although her skin was normally quite pale because no matter how long she laid in the sun her English skin would barely tan, she was even paler as a result of her nightmare/premonition. She rolled her eyes again cursing her mother's family who were the ones that passed down her curse as she called it, the only difference being that they could actually control it. Raven only got flashes and maybe a whole scene of either a future or present event while she slept and sometimes she didn't even remember it until it was almost too late. She shook her head to get rid of her dismal thoughts so that she could focus on her job. Raven strapped on her multitude of various knives that were her weapons of choice. She could shoot guns but she preferred the thrill of throwing knives and getting right in the thick of the action.

When Raven was ready to head out she placed an ordinary looking grey sphere on the floor that once activated would discreetly demolish the shelter until nothing was left. This saved agents from carrying too much when they had to go to remote areas for missions. Once outside Raven headed off to fulfill her mission which was to eliminate a band of terrorists, strangely based in Antarctica, who planned on destroying every major city in Northern Hemisphere with homemade chemical bombs before obliterating the entire continent of Antarctica and flooding most if not all of the South Hemisphere and maybe even part of the Northern Hemisphere. Ambitious but Raven was there to make sure they failed. As she approached the lab she slowed her pace so as to not disturb the snow as much. She circled the lab and whenever she spotted a guard she would throw one of her two inch long knives that were so thin they looked like giant needles. These deadly blades would bury themselves in the necks or the foreheads of Raven's targets, killing them before they knew what had hit them. Once she'd made her way back to the front door she slipped behind the two guards and, after removing a pair of knives from their wrist sheaths, skillfully slit their throats so that she didn't get a drop of blood on her clothes. Raven padded softly inside and the entrance hall ended at an empty catwalk which looked over the lower level where everything was located. She walked to the edge and looked down to see about a dozen people running around putting the finishing touches on the chemical missiles as a timer counted down to launch. Raven scanned the entire room which since it was the whole building meant she had to walk around the catwalk to get a good view of everything. Raven smiled when she saw her ride out of there which was a high speed jet that seated one person, and from what Raven had read about it was fairly simple to actually fly. "T minus two minutes," one of the men downstairs called out to the others.

_Alright I like a challenge, _Raven thought as she ran down the stairs and started to throw her knives. At one point she had to perform some complex acrobatics to avoid some retaliatory fire from those remaining. The countdown reached the one minute mark as Raven eliminated the rest of the opposition. She ran over to the control panel where there was, to her dismay, no big red button that was labeled abort in any language. _Just my luck, _Raven groaned mentally, _they never make it easy. _She laughed harshly; _Of course they never make it easy. Nothing has ever been easy in my whole life so why start now. I mean Natasha's off interrogating some Russians, Clint's just keeping an eye on the Tesseract though granted that might not end up being the walk in the park we thought it was going to be which is the same with Nigel and his combination of security duty and top secret engineering project at the same research facility. What do I do? I get to go all the way to freezing Antarctica all on my lonesome. Oh well it's better than guarding some stupid cube but still…. _Raven grinned as she finally spotted the tiny grey button that was labeled abort. She hit the button shutting down the missiles just as the timer hit the thirty second mark. _Cut it a little fine there. Because you were too busy thinking about Clint. He's a friend. _Raven started arguing with herself, something that she was prone to doing when she was on her own. _I was thinking about Nigel and Natasha as well. But mainly Clint. HE'S A FRIEND, besides he likes Natasha. How do you know? They're always together and you can tell just by the looks they've shared. Not for a while. Whatever just shut up. I can like him even if he's out of my reach. But you don't just like him do you? _This was an argument Raven often had with herself depending on her mood but it was always along the same basic lines. Raven had had feelings for Clint for a few years now but had never voiced those feelings for several reasons which were mainly: she believed he liked Natasha, she didn't want to ruin their friendship, and she had some family problems that needed resolving. Not to mention her brother would tease her mercilessly if he ever found out. So Raven keeps quiet and tries not to feel jealous when she sees Natasha and Clint together as she is very close friends with the both of them and had been ever since she and her brother began working for SHIELD.

While Raven was arguing with herself she was placing the same devices that she had used in the shelter all around the lab with the largest concentrations underneath the missiles, control panel, and the unarmed bombs that would have been used to blow up the ice. She opened the hanger doors and strapped herself into the cockpit of the jet. Raven checked all the controls making sure she knew where everything was. Just as she started the engines up, Raven activated the devices and then took off. By the time she was climbing into the atmosphere the entire lab was in ruins.


	2. Chapter 2

Raven was about an hour or two away from the Helicarrier when she ended up flying into a freak storm. Thankfully it wasn't one of the worst possible storms one could encounter while flying over the ocean though the last couple tens of miles were definitely close. In those couple tens of miles there was more lightning, rain and wind than in the previous bulk of the storm. It was too late for Raven to turn around so she just had to grit her teeth and fly through it. Of course with Raven's luck her phone would pick that time to finally find signal and after about five minutes of various tones notifying Raven of all her missed messages and phone calls. The amount of alerts set Raven on edge even more so than she was already because she knew that it meant something had gone wrong somewhere. Not long after her phone finished collecting everything she had missed, her phone rang. Raven wasn't sure if it was ill or good luck that the jet had a Bluetooth headset built in. The timing of the caller couldn't have been worse but since Raven really didn't want to miss any more calls she answered it. Of course it didn't help that the caller was Agent Coulson. Raven sighed and said, "Hello," into the microphone.

"We need you to come in," Coulson told Raven.

"I'm a little bit preoccupied at the moment," Raven responded gritting her teeth as she hit a nasty spot of turbulence and narrowly missed a bolt of lightning.

"This takes precedence."

"Haha I really doubt that."

"Raven-"

"Can't I just call you back?" Raven interrupted but it was lost in some static.

"Barton's been comprised," Coulson continued unaware of the interruption.

Raven let out a strangled gasp and lost control of the plane for a brief moment causing it to drop slightly. She regained control of herself and the jet. "I'm about an hour or so out. What happened?"

"Good we'll brief you on everything when you get back."

"Alright," Raven replied thinking, _Damn it Coulson. I really wish you wouldn't leave me hanging like this, _as she hung up the phone. She tried to just focus on flying the plane but she couldn't help the panic that was rising in her chest and various situations that flitted across her mind none of them good. About forty five minutes later the storm was far behind her and Raven could see the Helicarrier. She prepared to land but just as she began the descent a message appeared on the jet's computer screen in big red letters. The message read 'Main base destroyed. Self destruct set for ninety seconds. Eject immediately.' "Bugger," Raven muttered along with a few other choice swear words in both English and in Celtic. She slammed her fist on the eject button that had opened up and was shot into the air. Her parachute opened up and as she floated down to land on the Helicarrier Raven watched the jet explode into thousands of tiny fragments that fell into the ocean. Raven landed on the Helicarrier and stumbled forward slightly to catch her balance. Once one of the technicians had taken the parachute away Raven walked over to where she saw Natasha standing with two men that from their backs Raven couldn't identify.

"Gentlemen, you may want to step inside in a minute," Natasha was telling them as Raven walked up. "It's going to get a little hard to breathe."

"Well I see I made it just in time," Raven commented from behind Natasha as the two men walked to the edge saying something about submarines. She thought that she recognized the taller one of the two as Captain Steve Rogers but she wasn't completely sure if her mind wasn't playing tricks on her because why would he be here. Not unless Fury had decided to call in the scrapped Avengers Initiative.

Natasha spun around and smiled slightly when she saw Raven, "Raven, how are you?"

"I've been better."

"So you heard then?"

"About Clint being compromised, yes. Got a call from Coulson just as I was flying in a rough storm patch. But he wouldn't tell me anything more."

"It might be better if Director Fury explains it since he was there. You flew? I didn't see any planes landing after we did."

"Unfortunately the jet I obtained had an automatic self destruct set for a certain length of time after the main base of operations was destroyed."

"So you had to parachute the rest of the way."

"Well I can't fly and I didn't feel like dropping like a stone either so I didn't really have much of a choice. Nigel?"

"Don't worry he's inside."

Raven sighed in relief, "Who are they?" she indicated the two men that were walking back towards them.

"This is Captain Rogers," Natasha told Raven indicating the taller man and gesturing to the man who was shorter and had dark hair introduced him as Dr. Bruce Banner. "And this is Agent Raven Moviarty." Raven shook hands with the Captain and the doctor in turn. They all walked into the main conference area overlooking the bridge where Director Fury was waiting.

"Gentlemen," Fury said as Raven scanned the room for the tall raven-haired man that was Nigel. She spotted him on the other side of the room as for some strange reason, Steve gave Fury ten bucks. Before she could head over to Nigel Director Fury started talking and was almost in her way. "Doctor thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely," Bruce replied shifting nervously. "So, uh… how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."

_Oh no, _Raven thought flinching slightly. _It happened. _Nigel looked over at her in concern not missing the twitch.

"Where are you with that?" Bruce asked.

Coulson looked over from a computer screen and gave the answer after Fury gave him the go ahead. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

Natasha was squatting by a computer where a picture of Clint was displayed, "That's still not going to find them in time." Raven tried to contain her flare of jealousy but it wasn't easy.

"You have to narrow your field," Bruce told everyone sounding a lot more confident than he had before. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

"How many are there?" Fury answered with what wasn't really an answer.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?" Raven's head reeled slightly from all of the tech language. Science was not her forte at all.

"Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?"

"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys." Natasha stood up and led him out of the room. Agent Coulson walked over to Steve to talk to him about something. Raven thought it might have something to do with his vintage trading cards. She started to head over to where Nigel was standing but had to go the longer route because Agent Hill was standing in the direct route and the two of them didn't exactly get along which was an understatement. Hill strongly disliked Raven mainly because she didn't trust her due to her family history.

Raven was just walking by a row of computers when one of the agents cried out, "We got a hit. Sixty seven percent match. Wait, cross match, seventy nine percent."

"Location?" Coulson asked as Raven glanced at the screen to see Loki smiling up at the camera as if he knew it was there.

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

_Bloody God of mischief, _Raven thought seeing that Loki knew exactly what he was doing and probably had some devious plan up his sleeves.

"Captain, you're up." Fury ordered as he walked up. "Agent Moviarty debriefing in five. Conference room."

"That's you Rae," Nigel said with a grin.

"I know that Nigel," Raven replied rolling her eyes.

"Why weren't you answering your phone earlier? Fury, Coulson, and I all tried calling you but all calls went straight to voicemail and you never have your phone off. So, what happened?

"I had no bloody signal that's why. Cell signal is rubbish down at the southern end of the world and in the middle of nowhere." Raven smiled and stood next to Nigel. "Besides there's no need to get so overprotective of me, I can take care of myself you know."

"But that's my job. To protect my baby sister as much as I can." Nigel replied putting his arm around Raven's shoulders but she slid out glaring at him.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not your baby sister?"

"I am older."

"By four minutes!" Raven protested as they started to head down one of the many halls to the conference room.

Nigel pulled Raven aside once they were out of the other agents hearing, "Raven, what happened? You're shaking like a leaf and more rattled than you've been for a while."

Raven sighed, "I saw something. I'm not going to go into detail right now because I want to find out from Fury what the hell happened first."

Nigel ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "Dammit can't you learn to control it? Never mind forget I asked. I know you can't."

"I blame our dear old mother," Raven sighed. "It was her Scottish side of the family that were the seers. But at least they could control it. You know, I really think mother cursed me before she died. This never happened before we moved out."

"We'll figure something out, I promise," Nigel whispered in Raven's ear as he enveloped her in a hug."

"Don't make promises you might not be able to keep Nigel." Raven returned the hug and pulled back smiling. "Now scat. I've got to get to my debriefing. Plus I want to find out what happened with the Tesseract."

"We'll swap stories later then?" Nigel asked with a grin.

"Of course. I take it you're heading back to the bridge?"

"Yeah I'll either be there or seeing if Dr. Banner wants an extra hand in the lab. Depends on whether or not I can stand Hill's watching."

Raven chuckled slightly. "See you later." Nigel wandered off as Raven walked to the conference room where Director Fury was waiting.


	3. Chapter 3

Raven knocked on the door and walked in. "Antarctica?" Fury asked getting straight to the point.

"Intact and the threat is neutralized."

"How easy would it be for them to rebuild?"

"Near impossible I think because I left the main base in ruins and the jet that I rescued automatically self destruct I'm not sure how many hours after the main base was destroyed."

"Good work," Fury turned to leave.

"Sir what happened with the Tesseract?"

"Loki used the Tesseract to come to our world and steal the Tesseract," Fury said as he left.

_That wasn't exactly what I wanted, _Raven thought sighing. _Oh well that's Director Fury for you. _She headed towards Dr. Banner's lab figuring that Nigel was there instead of at the bridge. She smiled when she saw Nigel talking to Bruce as they fiddled with various computers. Raven leaned up against a table to watch.

"I can handle it from here, thank you Nigel," Bruce said.

"It was no problem Bruce," Nigel replied smiling. "Far better than standing around the bridge doing nothing. Have you met my sister?"

"Yes I did, just before we took off." Nigel went and leant on the table next to Raven. Bruce looked over at him, "Not going back up to the bridge."

"Are you kidding?" Raven asked incredulously. "And have to deal with Agent Hill constantly keeping an eye on us?"

"Why in the world would she do that?" Banner asked out of curiosity.

"Doesn't trust us," Nigel replied shrugging. "You would think we'd be used to it by now but no matter."

"You all work for S.H.I.E.L.D. though so why-?"

"Family history," Raven replied. Right then several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents walked by the windows escorting a handcuffed Loki to his cell. "Looks like the Captain bagged his prize and I have a feeling there's going to be a meeting in a minute." She got up and headed out the door with the two men right behind her. She took a seat beside Natasha and pulled up a screen that showed Loki's cell. Bruce stood behind the table while Nigel sat down next to Raven. The moment the twins had entered the room Agent Hill's alertness level went up a couple notches and she kept a sharp eye on the siblings. Raven sighed and rolled her eyes before watching Fury interrogate Loki.

"In case it's unclear, you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass," Fury warned Loki pressing a button that opened a large hole directly below Loki's cell. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant. Boot." He gestured first to Loki and then the control panel.

Loki laughed replying, "It's an impressive cage. Not built I think for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh I've heard," Loki looked straight at the camera as if he could see everyone who watching the interrogation on the computer monitors. "A mindless beast, makes play he's still a man." Nigel glanced at Bruce to see his reaction. All Bruce did was shift nervously and Nigel turned back to his screen. "How desperate are you that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."

"Yeah, well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something." Fury walked off and then everyone put their monitors away.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Bruce commented.

"Yeah like a mold or a fungus," Raven muttered darkly. Nigel chuckled slightly as Steve turned to Thor.

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri, they're not of Asgard nor any world known." Thor explained. "He means to lead them against your people. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army, from outer space," Steve said incredulously.

"Joy this just keeps getting better and better,"" Raven groaned leaning back in her chair. She pulled out one of her smaller blades, which was more like a pocketknife, and tossed it up and around her hand not really paying any attention to what she was doing.

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce reasoned.

"Selvig?" Thor asked shocked.

"He's an astrophysicist," Bruce explained to Thor.

"You know him?" Nigel asked Thor.

"He's a friend," Thor answered.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell." Natasha stated, "along with one of ours." Raven's eyes flashed in grief and anger ever so briefly that if Nigel hadn't been watching her closely, no one would have noticed.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him," Steve put in trying to get the conversation back on track

Raven opened her mouth to explain what she thought when Bruce cut in, "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him."

"Have a care how you speak," Thor responded. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha stated bluntly.

"He's adopted," Thor muttered slightly embarrassed.

"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what did they need the iridium for?" Bruce wondered as Tony and Coulson walked in.

"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony replied in answer to Banner's earlier question. He told Coulson something in a low voice before continuing his explanation. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD. No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing." He clapped Thor on the shoulder getting off track slightly. "Also means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long as Loki wants." He wandered over to the control panels that Fury used, "Raise the mizzenmast. Set the topsail. That man is playing gallaga!" Tony pointed to one of the younger agents that worked the computers. This comment made Steve really confused and Raven rolled her eyes.

_Same old tony, _Raven thought and glanced at Nigel who smiled knowing they were thinking the same thing.

Tony stood at the screens where Fury normally stood saying, "Thought we wouldn't notice but we did." He looked at the screens covering one eye. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," Agent Hill replied briefly taking her eyes off of Raven.

"Sounds exhausting," Tony muttered turning back around.

"Come on Tony get back on track," Raven said smiling her hand never slowing as it tossed the knife around.

"How you can do that without cutting yourself I don't understand," Tony commented watching the knife.

"Years of practice," Raven smirked.

"Right, the rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source with a high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked turning to look at Tony.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony wondered looking around at everyone.

"No I did," Nigel told Tony.

"Ah Nigel good to see you," Tony replied. "I should have guessed you wouldn't have been too far away. You two are almost inseparable." Nigel and Raven smiled.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked Tony.

"He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce answered looking at Steve.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Nigel added.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet," Bruce responded.

"Finally someone you speaks English," Tony replied walking over to Bruce. "That doesn't work for SHIELD of course." Nigel rolled his eyes.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked thoroughly confused.

"According to Tony, yes, but for the majority of people, no," Raven replied knowing exactly how the Captain felt. All the science talk just went straight over her more down to earth and practical head.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled," tony said shaking Bruce's hand. "And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Raven chuckled as Nigel rolled his eyes yet again.

"Thanks," Bruce replied not sure how to take Tony's comment.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube," Fury stated walking into the room. Agent Hill stepped back slightly but always kept an eye on Raven and her knife that was sill twisting and turning in the air. "I was hoping you might join him. You too Agent Moviarty."

"That's you," Raven muttered to Nigel who smirked.

"I know," Nigel grinned at Raven while Steve was saying something. "You really don't like high tech stuff do you?"

"Not particularly. It all seems fairly unreal." Raven replied tuning back into what Fury was saying.

"And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Raven's eyes again flashed briefly in grief and anger.

"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor said having no clue what was meant by that comment.

"I do!" Steve said enthusiastically finally understanding part of the conversation. "I understood that reference." Raven chuckled slightly putting her knife away smoothly.

"Shall we play Dr.?" Tony asked.

"This way," Bruce led Tony off to the lab.


	4. Chapter 4

Raven and Nigel headed the long way back towards Bruce's lab so they could catch up. "So how was Antarctica?" Nigel asked as they walked.

"Cold," Raven replied with a grin. "Fairly easy to take care of business there. They had a nice jet as well but unfortunately it couldn't carry me all the way back here."

"Why ever not?" Nigel asked looking at Raven. "Low on petrol*?"

"No apparently it was set to self destruct so many hours after the destruction of the main base of operations. How was the research facility?"

"Eh pretty normal until the Tesseract started acting up out of nowhere. We were evacuated and then shortly after we heard that Loki had stolen the Tesseract. We watched the whole facility crumble." He stopped and led Raven into their room. He sat her down on the bed and sat down beside. "No more evading it Rae. What did you see that has you so unnerved?"

Raven sighed and clasped her hands between her knees as she leaned forward slightly. "In a nutshell?" Raven sighed. "Fury and Selvig were talking about the Tesseract and then it was Fury and Clint. Loki then showed up attacked everyone, put Clint and Selvig under his mind control using his spear, picked up the case containing the Tesseract and walked out with Clint, Selvig, and several others that were enthralled. The facility started to collapse soon after that and then I woke up from falling off my cot."

Nigel put his arm around Raven's shoulders and pulled her close. "Any others lately?"

Raven shook her head, "Not that I remember."

"Have you even slept lately?" Raven looked at Nigel who shook his head. "I didn't think so." He stood up. "You need to sleep and now is as good as a time as any to catch forty winks*." Raven stuck her tongue out at Nigel. "I'll see you later now sleep." Nigel left the room and Raven laid down thinking that she would never fall asleep; however, she was out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Nigel headed to Bruce's lab where Steve's irate voice floated out of the open door, "Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense doctor." Nigel walked in quietly and stood off to the side out of the way.

"No, it… it's alright," Bruce replied. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"You're tiptoeing, big man," Tony told Bruce. "You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve rebuked Tony.

"You think I'm not?" Tony looked at Steve in shock. "Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a spy, Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." No one had yet noticed Nigel's presence in the room. Tony pointed to Bruce, saying, "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

"Uh… I just want to finish my work here and…" Bruce evaded.

"Doctor?" Steve prompted.

Bruce shifted, "'A warm light for all mankind to share,' Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it." Steve replied.

"I think that was meant for you," Bruce pointed to Tony. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki it was still all over the news."

"Stark Tower? That big ugly…" Steve changed what he was going to say when Tony gave him a look, "building in New York."

"It's powered by arc reactors, self sustaining energy source." Bruce said turning to Tony. "That building will run itself for what, a year?"

"That's just the prototypes," Tony bragged. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

"So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce mused. "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."

Steve looked at Tony startled, unsure if he had heard tony right, "I'm sorry, did you say…?"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide."

Nigel chuckled softly to himself, _Good luck Tony. Not all of SHIELD's secrets are on their database. I know that because there aren't many details on Raven and me especially out past before we joined SHIELD. Same with Clint and Natasha. That isn't something any of us want shouted to the heavens. _Nigel lost track of the conversation that was going on between the other three men in the room as he pieced together the mystery of Raven's strange reactions that day and in days and weeks prior. He chuckled to himself when he realized why Raven had reacted the way she did whenever Clint was referred to in the meeting and her reason for her slight awkwardness when she was alone with Clint and Natasha. His sister was in love with her best friend Clint who she thought was in love with Natasha. _Raven you should know you can't hide anything from me forever. We are twins and I do analyze behavior for SHIELD on occasion. _Nigel stood up, "What do you guys need me to do?"

"When did you get here?" Tony asked surprised about Nigel's sudden appearance. "Damn ninja spies. I could use a hand or two over here." Nigel walked over pulling up another screen. He glanced at the template that was roughed out earlier by Bruce. "You know Natasha well right?"

"Yeah I guess so," Nigel replied. "I've known her since just before Raven and I joined SHIELD. Why? You and Pepper had a falling out?"

Tony chuckled slightly, "No we're still going as strong as ever. Actually right after I came aboard Natasha asked me if Raven and I had or ever had a thing. Which is completely ridiculous so do you know why she would ask such a thing?"

Nigel stopped what he was doing and looked at Tony, "I don't have any idea why Natasha would ask you that. Normally if she wanted to know something about Raven she would normally ask her herself. Unless…" Nigel trailed off thinking.

"Unless what? Come on Nigel you can't just say something like that and not finish."

"Someone could always have asked Natasha to either look into it or was wondering and she decided to look into it discreetly because whoever it was didn't want Rae to know."

"But who?" Tony guessed before getting slightly off track but still on the same subject. "Oh and I believe your sister is in love with Agent Barton judging by her reaction when he was mentioned briefly."

"Two things. That was very blunt and you noticed as well?"

"Of course I did. I was looking right at her. Do you think so as well?" Nigel nodded. "How long have you known?"

"Known? Since just before I started helping you. Suspected? A few years."

"Ah so that's what you were thinking about earlier. Wait, you and your sister are good friends with Agent Barton and Natasha who are also good friends. Do you suppose Natasha was looking into mine and Raven's relationship for Agent Barton?"

"That's quite possible," Nigel mused. "I can find out." He pulled out his phone and texted Natasha asking if she had asked Tony about his relationship with Raven for Clint.

Her reply read, _Shouldn't you and Stark be focusing on finding the Tesseract with Dr. Banner not discussing reasons behind any questions I might have asked? _

Nigel chuckled sending a quick response that said, _We are. Tony was just wondering why you would ask him such a strange question about my sister._

"What did she say?" Tony asked moving things around on his screen.

"She evaded the question," Nigel replied sliding his completed section of the program over to Tony who combined it with his. Nigel pulled his phone out to read Natasha's reply while Tony and Bruce finished assembling the tracking program. "Hey Tony. She refused to answer."

"Well that's helpful," Tony replied sarcastically. "Very like Natasha."

"I'll talk to her later and see if I can't wring a cohesive answer out of her."

"Good luck with that. She's a crafty one she is. Aha JARVIS is just about finished breaking into SHIELD's database."

"Seriously Tony? You're trying to break into SHIELD's systems?"

"Not trying, doing. And I'm just looking at the database. Mainly what SHIELD's plans for the Tesseract where. Unless you'd care to elaborate for us."

Nigel shook his head. "I never worked with the Tesseract. Besides even if I had, I wouldn't tell you anyways."

"Figures," Tony replied as he and Bruce started up the tracking program. Nigel walked down to the kitchen to find something to eat.

*Author's note

For all those who don't know British terminology petrol is the same as gasoline and forty winks is a quick nap.


	5. Chapter 5

Raven woke up feeling refreshed feeling like she had slept better than she had in ages but there was something that didn't feel quite right. She got up and when she saw her reflection in her mirror, she grimaced seeing the state her hair was in. Raven grabbed her brush and yanked it through her tangles. She decided to leave it down since the chances of her getting called onto a job when they didn't know where the Tesseract was, was fairly slim. When her hair was down it fell to the middle of her back in gentle waves. She left her room and started heading back to the lab. Her path took her alongside the area where Loki was being held. As she walked by she heard Loki's voice drifting out of his cage. "Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Drakoff's daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital fire?" Raven realized that Loki was talking to Natasha so she slunk into the shadows where she could see Natasha's back. Raven really wanted to see Loki get what he deserved and Natasha was one of the best people to do that. Raven had always been amazed at the ease with which Natasha manipulated her targets into giving away their plans and secrets, and against Loki that would be interesting to watch. "Barton told me everything," Loki continued. "Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers you pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you and they will never go away." He slammed his fist on the glass. "I won't touch Barton! Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams I'll split his skull!"

_That's…that's… _Raven was unable to form a coherent thought hearing those words. She covered her mouth to stop from crying out because not only was Loki threatening the lives of two of the five people in the whole world that she was closest to and trusted complete, but the way Loki talked of their deaths with such relish was far too familiar.

"This is my bargain, you mewling quim," Loki spat at Natasha who started to weep facing Raven who could see that she wasn't crying at all.

"You're a monster," Natasha sobbed.

"Oh, no. You brought the monster," Loki replied smugly.

"So Banner? That's your play?" Natasha asked calmly turning back to face Loki who was now utterly bewildered.

"What?"

_One for Natasha, _Raven thought with a grin.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." Raven heard Natasha's orders through her earpiece as Natasha walked away. Just as she was about to leave she turned back to Loki saying, "Thank you, for your cooperation," before walking off. Raven turned around to head to the lab a different way when Loki's voice stopped her in her tracks.

"I know you're there."

"What did you want to learn what it feels like to fall through the air in a glass cage?" Raven asked spitefully as she turned around. She walked forward a few steps so that she was looking directly at Loki with narrowed eyes.

Loki laughed, "How like your father you are Agent Moviarty. In looks and mannerisms."

"I am nothing like my father," Raven spat keeping a tight grip around her mounting terror.

"Oh but you are and he's looking for you and your brother. He almost joined me in my glorious plan but being an assassin and preferring to work in the shadows, your father preferred to let you and your brother be lured out so he can finish what he started all those years ago. Oh and he wants to avenge his beloved wife. Unfortunately her killer was and is still of use to me so your father still has to wait for that which he was not overjoyed about."

"You're just looking for a way to restore your injured pride from when Natasha played you." Raven was seriously rattled by what Loki knew. "You're just lucky I don't have orders to drop you like a stone." She spun on her heal and walked out of the room with Loki's oily voice following her.

"You want to be rid of his legacy but you can't. You're still an assassin whether you work for S.H.I.E.L.D. or as an assassin for hire like your parents! You aren't escaping their legacy. You're living it!" Once Raven was out of Loki's sight and hearing, she leant against a wall to compose herself. She wasn't quite ready to face Nigel who would know something was wrong almost immediately. As Raven tried to settle her tumult of emotions she remembered the day she and Nigel left home and what followed.

_"We're going to have to split up if we're going to have any chance of losing them," Nigel panted as he and Raven stopped to catch their breath. _

_"Right, where should we meet up then?" Raven asked her eyes darting around for any sign of their pursuers._

_"QCZ 3528," _

_"Okay so I'll go west then," Raven recognized the code the two of them had for their seventh flat number 29 that was along the banks of the river Thames in London._

_"Be careful sis," Nigel said softly placing his hand on Raven's shoulder. _

_"I will if you are," Raven replied giving Nigel a quick hug before she ran west and he ran east. Raven ran at a fast but steady pace for several hours ducking and weaving through a maze of streets and alleys. Nothing was quite enough to shake off the shadowy figure that was always behind her. _Why can't they just accept the fact that Nigel and I don't want any part of their lifestyle? We're old enough to move out and we're sick and tired of their lies. Million pound executives indeed. My parents are assassins who would work for whoever paid them the most and they've been grooming Nigel and me our whole lives to follow in their footsteps. Well granted we should have figured it out earlier but we've figured it out and we aren't going to deal with it any more. _Raven glanced over her shoulder and seeing that her father, as that was who was chasing her, had dropped out of sight. She slowed her pace to conserve her dwindling energy reserves. When she reached a crossroad she stopped in the middle to catch her breath. In the middle of the night there were no cars there and the only light came from a solitary streetlamp. Suddenly Raven froze and unsheathed her pair of knives that she had on her hips. She glanced to her left and saw a woman pointing a gun at her while on her right a man was training an arrow of all things at her head. Raven focused on the man who was in front of her and in her opinion he was the strangest of them all. He was wearing a long trench coat and what looked like an eye patch, but despite the fact his gun was down by his side pointing at the ground, Raven didn't trust him and sensed that if she tried to attack that gun would be up faster than she could blink._

_"That's not Belinda," the man to her right said. _

_"No it's not, not unless she started using knives for her m.o." the woman added._

_"Tell us where Belinda Moviarty is," the man who seemed to be the leader ordered._

_Raven snorted, "Last I heard? Somewhere east of here. Though now…" She glanced up at what stars she could see to calculate her position from where she started to where she was now and where she thought Nigel was. "I'd say she's more northeasterly."_

_"If you know where she is do you know where her husband Damian Moviarty is?" the archer questioned._

_"Not far," Raven replied her eyes darting around trying to figure out her best mode of escape. It was pointless trying to go around any of them to run down the roads because she could tell that they were well-trained. And running back the way she came was certainly out of the picture. _

_"Not far from where?" the woman asked exasperated._

_The hairs on the back of Raven's neck stood up as she unknowingly replied, "Here." She glanced behind her and thought she could see a darker patch of shadow making its way towards her. Raven gritted her teeth, resheathed her knives and ran at the archer knocking his bow out of the way. Before any of them could react she was jumping up and pushing off of his shoulders. Just as he reached up to grab her arm Raven flipped onto a nearby fire escape. She looked down briefly before fleeing up onto the rooftops. Raven didn't stop or think. She just ran across the rooftops until she no longer felt like she was being followed. Raven slowed down and, her heart pounding, slipped into one of the several flats that her family owned. When Raven heard movement inside she nearly jumped out of her skin but it was only Nigel._

_"You alright Rae?" Nigel asked quietly. Raven nodded too out of breath to speak. Nigel sank back into his chair while Raven stretched out her muscles to prevent them from seizing up. She then fell into a chair utterly exhausted but despite how drained that both were, they were still too on edge to sleep._

_Just as dawn was beginning to break Raven heard movement outside in the hall. She stood up slowly nodding her head towards the door. Nigel got up and settled into a fighting stance waiting for the door to open. Raven readied her knives for the second time that night as the door opened. The three people who Raven had come across earlier burst into through the doors weapons drawn. "You again?" Raven asked incredulously._

_"You know these people?" Nigel turned to Raven in shock._

_"Not exactly," Raven replied. "Sort of ran into them earlier as I made my way through the streets. How did you find us?"_

_"Tracker dot on your sleeve," the archer replied with a smirk. Raven looked at the back of her sleeve and saw a tiny pulsing red dot. She pulled it off and looked at it._

_"We like to keep tabs on people who might be a threat especially when they pull knives on us," the leader replied._

_"It was self defense," Raven snapped. "You had weapons trained on me first."_

_"Yes but someone running through the back roads of London in the dead of night carrying knives tends to send up some red flags," the woman commented._

_"Who are you anyway?" Nigel questioned._

_"How long has that window been open?" the archer wondered. Nigel and Raven spun around to look out of the now open window._

_"Time to come home children," a cold male voice came out of the shadows opposite the window._

_"We're not children," Raven spat all colour gone from her face her eyes darting around not trusting where the voice had come from to be where the speaker was actually located._

_"Why would we go "home" to a pair of liars?" Nigel wondered not quite as pale as Raven._

_"Because it's where you belong and where your family is," the voice replied silkily._

_"I don't think so you know." Raven replied. "I saw a quote the other day that said, 'Family isn't about whose blood you have. It's about who you care about.' And you know what; I don't care about you or mother. In fact the only person I care about is standing here beside me."_

_"Well if that's how you feel…" Next thing Raven knew she was knocked on her stomach. She rolled over and saw the archer shoot an arrow out the open window. The leader was searching the shadows where the voice came from but there wasn't anyone there. Nigel walked over to the wall that was in front of Raven while the woman offered her hand to Raven. Raven took her hand and the woman helped her up before walking over to the leader and archer to ask them something. As Raven turned to ask Nigel a question she heard the sound of a blade being drawn from its sheath. She twisted her upper body halfway around catching the edge of a sword on the inside of her forearm. Raven looked into the cold mismatched steel grey and ice blue eyes of her father, Damian Moviarty. She pulled out one of her daggers with her left hand to take the weight of the blade off of her arm but by the time the blade was half out of its sheath the woman and the leader had their guns trained the best they could on him since Raven was slightly in the way. Damien grinned seeing he was outnumbers and before anyone could react he had put his sword away and jumped out of the window. The strangers ran over to the window and looked out but Damien was nowhere to be seen._

_"Where'd he go?" the woman wondered._

_"No clue," Raven replied pressing her hand against the gash on her arm. "The man's a bloody ninja."_

_"So who are you?" Nigel asked again putting a dart that he had pulled out of the wall on the table. He walked over to the cupboards to find the first aid kit. Raven glanced at the dart and immediately recognized it as one of her mother's poisoned darts that she preferred to use in sniper rifles._

_"Thank you," Raven said to the archer._

_"What for?" he asked turning to her._

_"Saving my life," she nodded towards the dart. "One of my mother's favorite poisoned darts. You've probably figured out that she's Belinda Moviarty." The archer nodded as the leader stepped forward. _

_"I'm Director Nick Fury of SHIELD," he said. "That is Agent Natasha Romanoff and this is Agent Clint Barton." Fury pointed to Natasha and Clint as he introduced them. "And you are?"_

_Nigel walked back into the room having found the first aid kit, "I'm Nigel and that's my twin sister Raven who really should be sitting down." He put his hand on Raven's shoulder and shoved her into a chair before starting to bandage up her wrist._

_"Pleasure," Raven said. "I would shake hands but that would be messy."_

_"It's alright," Natasha said. "What can you two do?"_

_"Me basically anything with a small blade," Raven replied. "Nigel's more hand to hand."_

_"Interesting," Clint said. "You know you should really have a doctor look at your arm."_

_"No need," Raven replied. "Never been to a hospital and not planning to start now. They ask too many questions and the place is just creepy. Plus Nigel and I know enough first aid to stop the worst of the scarring and damage."_

_"Why don't you two join us at SHIELD?" Fury asked Nigel and Raven who exchanged glances._


	6. Chapter 6

Raven traced her finger over the six inch scar that cut across her forearm starting below her thumb on her wrist. She shook her head to put all her bad thoughts aside so that she could focus on whatever needed doing. Raven ran into Nigel just outside of the lab. He held the door open for her and they walked into the middle of an argument. "I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," Bruce was saying. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction." Raven and Nigel blinked in surprise.

_I knew we were making new weapons because I helped, _Nigel thought. _But I didn't realize the Tesseract was going to be used with them._

"Because of him," Fury admitted pointing to Thor.

"Me?" Thor was confused.

"Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out gunned."

_Ah yes I remember Clint talking about that, _Raven thought as Thor was saying something about peace. _It happened just after he was assigned guard duty over some hammer that was stuck in the ground._

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury continued. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve countered.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies." Thor explained as Raven's jaw tightened at the mention of Loki. "It is the signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve asked.

"You forced our hand," Fury responded. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent, cause that always calms everything right down," Tony replied sarcastically.

Nigel placed his hand on Raven's shoulder and as the argument heated up asked her quietly in Celtic, "What's wrong."

"Besides the fact the group of people who are supposed to be working together to stop Loki are arguing?" Raven responded in the same language. "Nothing."

"Raven…"

"I said I'm fine." Raven snapped.

"You're too tense to be fine." Nigel replied calmly.

Raven sighed, "Loki is a…" She called Loki several things that don't need to be translated.

While Nigel processed that information, Bruce's voice rose above the others, "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

"Dr. Banner put down the scepter," Steve ordered. Raven looked over and saw that Bruce was holding Loki's scepter. The tracking system beeped signally that it had found the Tesseract. Bruce set the scepter back down and walked over to the computer.

"Sorry kids. you don't get to see my party trick after all." Bruce replied slightly calmer. Of course the fact that the Tesseract had been located had set Steve and Tony arguing yet again. Raven started to get an uneasy feeling that something was going to go wrong and instead of it going away it kept mounting. "Oh my god!" Bruce had noticed something about the Tesseract. Right then one of the engines exploded sending everyone flying. Raven and Nigel flew through the glass window/wall onto the hall the glass cutting them. One larger shard lodged in Raven's upper arm but she didn't notice.

"Put on the suit!" Steve told Tony helping him up.

"Yep!" Tony replied as they left. Nigel and Raven headed to find the intruders. Raven stopped by her room and grabbed a hair band so as they ran she could pull her hair up in a ponytail out of the way. Once they found a group of armed hostiles, Raven scanned all of them and seeing that not one of them was carrying a bow she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't want to fight Clint if she could help it and she wasn't even sure if she could beat him since they were so evenly matched. Raven and Nigel exchanged glances and then attacked the hostiles using teamwork that only they could and was hard to beat. They never got in each other's way but were always there to back up the other if one got into a bit of a pinch. Raven was darting around knives flying and slipping between ribs. Nigel preferred more physical combat so he was using martial arts moves to either snap necks or incapacitate the opposition. Fur's voice filtered through their earpieces just after the ship started to drop, "It's Barton, he took our systems. He's headed for the detention lab. Does anybody copy?"

"This is Agent Romanoff. I copy." Raven wished Natasha good luck at breaking Loki's hold on Clint as she dodged an attack that she caught on her upper arm right by the spot where the glass was stuck. She was so caught up in the battle that she didn't even notice again due to her inherited blood lust. When the battle was over Raven calmed down and surveyed the hall. She noticed that unfortunately, but as usual Nigel had several scrapes, though this time he also had a couple nasty gashes and a dislocated shoulder. Sometime during the fight Raven's hair tie had snapped causing her hair to fall over her face. She brushed it back with her hand as Fury's voice came in over the comms.

"Agent Coulson is down."

"The medic team is on its way to your location," some agent replied.

"They're here. They called it." Raven sighed and leaned against a wall. She closed her eyes to mourn the death of one of her friends and one of the few people she could trust.


	7. Chapter 7

"Come on you," Raven said to Nigel leading him towards one of the infirmary rooms, "let's get you cleaned up."

"You more so than me," Nigel replied not wanting to go to the infirmary. "You're covered in blood."

Raven looked down at her bare arms, normally a pale creamy colour, were now covered in blood. She shrugged, "It's mostly their blood, the downside of my way of fighting. I might have a couple scratches but that's it. If I was actually wearing the long sleeved SHIELD uniform you wouldn't notice."

"Yes but you never wear that do you?"

"It's too skintight for me to move around in. that and it makes my knives, too uncomfortable, too obvious, or too difficult to get to." Raven sat Nigel down on a bed and went into the bathroom to clean her hands and get some towels, bandages, and water. She placed the stuff on the table and started cleaning the worst of Nigel's wounds.

"I'm sure Clint wouldn't mind seeing you in that outfit," Nigel commented slyly watching Raven's face out of the corner of his eye.

"Nigel!" Raven cried shocked as her face went pink. She punched him in his good shoulder. Nigel smirked as that was the reaction he was hoping for.

"What? Did I say something?" Nigel asked innocently. _Now all that's left to do is find out for sure if Clint likes Raven as well. The only problem is how to get out from under my overprotective sister's watchful eye to go talk to Natasha wherever she is._ Raven finished bandaging Nigel's wounds and then went into the bathroom to clean up before relocating his shoulder. _Perfect. _Nigel slipped out of the room and down the hall. He stopped outside of a room where he heard Clint's voice coming out of it.

"Well, if I put an arrow in Loki's eye socket, I'd sleep better I suppose." Clint mused.

"Now you sound like you," Natasha replied.

"But you don't," Clint said. "You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"

"He didn't. I just…" Natasha paused. "I've been compromised. I got red in my ledger; I'd like to wipe it out."

Nigel knocked on the door and walked in saying, "You know Clint, you might have to race Raven for Loki's eye because I think she wants to put a knife through it herself. It's good to see you Clint." Nigel sat down in a chair.

"Good to see you too, Nigel," Clint replied. "So where is Raven?"

A glint appeared in Nigel's eye. "She's-" Raven appeared behind him and popped his shoulder back into place. "Bloody hell Raven! What was that for?" Nigel twisted his head to look at Raven as she walked around to stand in front of him arms crossed.

"Your shoulder had to be put back in place," Raven replied slightly irritated. "Plus you snuck out."

"You couldn't have warned me?!"

"If I had warned you, you would have been tenser and it would have hurt more." Nigel rolled his eyes forcing Raven to smile. When she saw Clint relief flooded her eyes which didn't go unnoticed by Nigel.

Nigel stood up, "Nat can I talk to you?" He pulled her up and out of the room shutting the door behind them.

"What are you doing?" Natasha asked.

"I needed to talk to you out of their hearing," Nigel answered quietly. "I need an answer to the question I asked you earlier. I'll explain once you tell me whether you were asking Tony if he was in a relationship with Raven for Clint."

Natasha sighed, "Yes, he didn't ask me to but I've known him for a long time. Clint may not be very good at displaying emotions but he can definitely get jealous because whenever he saw Raven talking to Tony either on the phone or through the webcam he would get a little green. That and I'm sure he's noticed that Raven laughs a lot more with Tony but is more nervous when she's around Clint."

"Well Clint has seen the dark side of Raven and she's afraid he'd judge her for it where as Tony hasn't ever seen that side of Raven." Nigel reasoned. Natasha raised an eyebrow wanting an answer as to why he was asking her about something that didn't really have to do with him. Nigel smiled, "Plus Raven is in love with Clint. Though she probably always thought that he liked you."

"I did like Clint, until… I saw that he seemed to like Raven so I started to realize that it might be a lost cause."

"Until what Nat?" Nigel asked wondering if it was what he was hoping it might be. One major difference between him and Raven was that he was far better at hiding his emotions especially from Raven.

"I realized that I was looking in the wrong direction the whole time."

"And what direction were you looking in?" Natasha looked at Nigel answering that question with her eyes. Nigel smiled, "So should we leave the two of them alone for a little bit to see if they can figure it out between them that they like each other. Or more than like."

"Oh yes. We'd hate to have to open their eyes to the obvious." Nigel and Natasha laughed and walked away talking. If there hadn't been a chance of running into any of the other agents they probably would have held hands.


	8. Chapter 8

There was a bit of an awkward silence in the room after Nigel and Natasha had left. "So how are you doing?" Raven asked.

"Better now," Clint replied. "You?"

"Alright. I've had worse days."

"I'm sure you have." Clint's eyes strayed to her arm. "You're bleeding Rae."

Raven glanced down at her arm in surprise. "It's just a scratch."

"Sure it is, but if it isn't taken care of you could get an infection or bleed out. Come sit." He patted the spot that Natasha had recently vacated. Raven slowly sat down and Clint looked at her arm. "Have you even cleaned this yet?"

"Didn't even realize I had it," Raven replied quietly.

Clint smiled, "Too busy worrying about Nigel? You've got glass stuck in your arm." He filled a bowl up with cold water and brought a couple cloths, bandages and a pair of tweezers over. Clint sat back down and gently started washing Raven's arm. She jumped slightly at the coldness of the water and how despite how rough Clint's fingers were from all the archery that he did his hands were surprisingly gentle. "Sorry," Clint said thinking that he'd hurt her.

Raven looked at him, "What for?"

Clint looked into Raven's eyes in shock, "I thought I'd hurt you when you jumped."

Raven smiled marveling at the colour of Clint's eyes,"No I just didn't expect…the water to be so cold." She paused tempted to say something else.

Clint found himself smiling back of his own accord as he replied, "I see."

"Thank you," Raven whispered.

"It's no problem." Clint bandaged Raven's arm. He looked closer at Raven and noticed her paler complexion, scared look in her eyes, and a slightly tremor in her hands that she had clasped in her lap. "Are you sure you're alright? You don't look it."

"Yeah I'm fine."

"No you're not. You're pale and trembling. Nigel's fine just a little battered and so are Natasha and I. Is Tony alright?"

"When I saw him a while ago besides being mad at the Captain he was fine. I assume that he's okay now since I haven't heard anything different."

If Clint was surprised at the fact that Raven hadn't yet been to see the man he thought she liked he didn't show it. "Loki's done something to upset you. What was it?"

"Besides enslaving one of my best friends and one of the few people I care about and- Nothing."

"And what?"

"Not now."

"Raven," Clint placed his hand on her arm.

Raven sighed, "You don't-" She stopped when Clint looked at her. She sighed again and looked down. "Loki killed Coulson." Clint flinched away and Raven turned and grabbed his arm. "Listen to me Clint. It wasn't your fault. Loki's the one that did it not you. Don't even think about trying to blame yourself. You were under Loki's mind control so you weren't able to stop yourself from following his orders. You weren't near his containment cell when he got out so don't you dare blame yourself for Coulson's death."

Clint chuckled dryly. "Well I guess I can consider myself told off. But that's not all that's bothering you."

Raven leaned her head back as she inwardly sighed having hoped that Clint would not have picked up on anything else. "You and Nigel both are difficult to fool." She didn't open up very easily and because she didn't like to burden those closest to her with her problems getting Raven to explain what was bothering her was akin to getting blood from a stone. Raven took a deep breath and said, "Loki said that someone from my past is looking for me and that they had spoken."

"Not…?" Raven nodded. "Have you told Nigel?" She shook her head. "Why not? This concerns him just as much as you. He wants to kill you both."

"Looks like it's my turn to be told off," Raven commented before explaining, "We were interrupted. I was about to tell him but we ended up having to stop our conversation. And we're not the only ones he wants to kill." This last part was whispered so low that even with Clint's sharper than average hearing he had a hard time catching what she had said.

"He's an assassin. He always has someone he's targeting." Clint wasn't quite sure what Raven was getting at.

Raven looked back over at Clint, "He wasn't to kill you too. For killing his wife."

"Did Loki tell you that?" When Raven didn't answer Clint figured that he'd guessed right. "You can't believe anything Loki says."

"I know that," Raven replied. "But I also know that is this what he said is true." She sighed and was about to say something else when Natasha and Nigel came back in. Clint went to go wash up and put the first aid stuff away while Nigel stole his seat. "Have a nice chat?" Raven asked smiling.

"Yeah you?" Just as Raven was about to answer Steve opened the door.

"Time to go," Steve said looking at the three of them.

"Go where?" Nigel and Natasha asked at the same time. Raven glanced at them just as they were exchanging their own looks. Their looks though were more personal and that they knew something that everyone else didn't.

"I'll tell you on the way. Can any of you fly one of those jets?" Nigel and Raven shook their heads.

"I can," Clint replied coming into the room drying his hands. Steve glances at Natasha who was closest to him. She nodded to confirm that Clint was on their side.

"You got a suit?" Clint nodded. "Then suit up." Everyone headed to their respective rooms to change.

Raven pulled out her usual, looser outfit consisting of basically a pair of pants and a short sleeve shirt with a few enhancements such as Kevlar. She sighed when she realized that it was torn up beyond immediate repair. Raven looked at her other outfit and sighed again. It wasn't that she didn't like it, it was just that contrary to what she had told Nigel earlier about tight outfits impeding her movements, in all actuality they just made her feel self conscious. She shrugged telling herself to just get over it and get ready. While she was giving her hair a quick brush in the mirror Raven realized that the outfit really wasn't that bad. It was fairly simple and was made up of black leather pants, black mid-calf high boots, and a green tank top under a red jacket. Both were fairly low cut. Raven pulled her hair up into a ponytail before braiding it. She tied off the braid with a hair band that had a one and a half inch wide black rose with silver dusting on the edge of the petals that were very sharp. She strapped all of her knives on and left. As she walked by the entrance to Nigel's room he came out in his dark grey leather pants, pale grey long sleeve shirt and black sneaker like shows. "You ready?" Raven asked smiling.

"Of course," Nigel replied as they met up with Clint, Natasha, and Steve who were also already in their outfits. Natasha's really didn't change that much from her normal SHIELD outfit. Nigel moved to walk next to Natasha so Raven walked next to Clint.

"New outfit?" Clint asked quietly so only Raven could hear.

"Your eyes don't miss a thing do they?" Raven replied laughing slightly. _Except the fact that I love you. _"Yeah someone introduced my old one to a shredder." Before Clint could reply the group had reached one of the Quinjets where two younger agents were working.

They boarded the jet and one of them stood up telling them, "You guys aren't authorized to be in here."

Steve looked at him and said, "Son, just don't." The agent looked at him in shock and then decided to exit the aircraft with his partner. Clint went and strapped himself in the pilot seat while Natasha took copilot. The rest held on in the back as the jet took off following the speck that was Iron Man.

"So where are we going?" Raven asked.

"Stark Tower," Steve replied.

"Wait why-" Nigel started to ask before realizing the answer to his own question. "Oh Tony's going to be pissed."

"Going to be?" Raven looked at Nigel incredulously. "I think he already is."

Nigel chuckled, "Yeah probably."

"He's coming," Raven muttered in Celtic so that only Nigel could hear.

"He as in _him_?" Nigel responded in the same language and Raven nodded. "Wonder what took him so long?"

Raven shrugged, "Who knows." She looked at Nigel a glint in her eyes. "So what was with that look you gave Natasha earlier?"

"What look?" Nigel asked innocently. He dropped the act sighing, "And here I was thinking I could hide most of my feelings from you. Fine we're together if that's what you wanted to know."

Raven smiled, "I did and I thought so from that look." _So she doesn't like Clint. Of course that doesn't mean he doesn't like her._

As the Quinjet approached New York City, Natasha radioed Tony, "Stark we're heading northeast."

Stark's voice came back slightly irritated, "What did you stop for drive thru? Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay them out for you." Stark flew in front of the jet followed closely by several Chitauri on some form of hovercraft. Natasha shot the Chitauri down and Clint flew the jet near Stark Tower. Raven looked out of the front of the jet and saw Loki and Thor fighting on a balcony like space on Stark Tower. Images flashed through her mind of two men wearing a red cape and green robes, who she now knew were Thor and Loki respectively, a big blue circle in the sky connected to a roof by a blue beam, a giant creature that looked like a turtle coming out of the circle, and a knife flying towards Clint's back. Raven went slightly white and just then Loki shot one of the wings of the jet causing it to start to spiral down.


	9. Chapter 9

Raven swore bitterly as the plane started to go down asking herself what jets had against her all of a sudden since they wanted to blow up or crash. Her head cracked against the side causing her to momentarily see stars as she held onto a rail. She saw Nigel and Steve hanging on as Clint fought with the plane. He finally managed to crash land on the street almost running into a building. "Nice landing Clint…" Raven started to say rubbing the back of her head.

"…but you do realize that this is a no parking zone." Nigel finished grinning impishly. Raven chuckled slightly as Clint turned to look at the two of them and he took off the headset.

"I don't exactly come to New York that often," Clint replied smiling as they exited the jet. "Besides it's better than in the building."

"We gotta get back up there," Steve announced all business. Raven shrugged and they all ran off towards Stark Tower. Raven looked up and the portal and slowed when she saw what was coming out of it.

"Holy crap," she breathed as they watched a giant ship that looked like a cross between a turtle and a worm flying out of the portal along with more warriors on hovercraft. As the ship reached the height of the buildings more warriors jumped out of the sides, slid down the buildings and landed on the streets.

"Stark are you seeing this?" Steve asked over the comm.

"I'm seeing, still working on believing," Tony replied. "Where's Banner has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?"

"Just keep me posted," Stark cut off the conversation and some of the Chitauri warriors that had landed near Raven and the others started shooting at them. The five of them took cover behind a flipped taxi.

"Got civilians trapped," Clint said spotting civilians in the nearby buildings.

"Great they might run into the streets," Nigel groaned. "The last thing we need is a bunch of panicked civilians running into the line of fire." A squad of Chitauri landed nearby.

"We got this go," Natasha told Steve.

"You think you can hold them off?" Steve asked the agents.

"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure." Clint grinned.

"This'll be fun," Raven said pulling out some of her throwing knives.

"Fight aliens and a crazy god isn't exactly my idea of fun," Nigel commented.

"Now that you and Natasha are together it isn't," Raven commented causing Nigel to punch in the shoulder none to gently. "What was that for?" Raven asked acting like she didn't know.

"You know very well what for."

"If you two are quite finished bickering we do have an alien invasion going on right now," Natasha interrupted from where she and Clint were standing in a somewhat sheltered area shooting the Chitauri. Raven grinned as she and Nigel launched into combat. "Just like Budapest all over again!" Natasha called to Clint.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently," Clint replied making Raven chuckle.

"It was probably the lack of aliens or the fact that Nigel and I weren't there to keep you company," she called as she took out a couple Chitauri that were attempting to sneak up on Clint and Natasha. Clint shot her a rare smile and the street was eventually cleared of Chitauri warriors. Steve rejoined the four agents as they regrouped.

Thor landed on the ground nearby explaining, "The powers surrounding the cube are impenetrable."

Tony came in over the comm. Saying, "Thor is right, we gotta deal with these guys."

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.

At the same time Nigel asked, "How?"

"As a team," Steve told everyone.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor announced.

"Yeah well get in line," Clint said adjusting the tip of one of his arrows.

"Both of you behind me," Raven told them her voice dangerous and her eyes cold and deadly. Natasha and Steve looked at her in slight surprise. Natasha because she wondered what Loki had done to Raven to make her this angry because it was more than enslaving Clint and murdering Coulson. Steve however hadn't realized how dangerous Raven could be if she was upset enough.

Steve shook his head to focus himself before giving orders. "Save it. Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark on top, he's gonna need us to…" He trailed off as a puttering sound approached.

Bruce showed up on a motorcycle and after dismounting and looking around he said, "So, this all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse," Natasha told him calmly.

"Sorry." Bruce sounded sincere when he apologized.

"No we could use a little worse."

Steve radioed Tony, "Stark we got him, Banner, just like you said."

Tony's voice came back to them, "Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." He flew around a corner with the giant turtle worm ship chasing him.

"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha commented confused.

Raven rolled her eyes, "It's Tony. Almost everything's a party to him. Unfortunately."

"I heard that Raven." Tony replied.

"That was the point. I said it over an open comm. link."

Steve turned to Bruce, "Dr. Banner now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

Bruce smiled and started walking towards the incoming enemy ship, "That's my secret Captain." He stopped. "I'm always angry." Bruce turned towards the ship that was almost on top of them and as he did so he morphed into the Hulk and smashed the ship. Tony flew up and shot some exposed flesh on the turtle worm ship.

Nigel looked at the portal, "Guys." Everyone looked to see hundreds of Chitauri warriors and more giant ships.

"Call it Captain," Tony told Steve.

Steve nodded and started to deliver orders. "Alright listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

Clint turned to Tony, "Wanna give me a lift?"

"Right," Tony told Clint. "Better clench up Legolas." Tony lifted Clint up to the roof.

Before he did, however, Raven looked at him and mouthed "Be careful."

He nodded and mouthed back, "You too." Raven smiled slightly.

This silent exchange didn't go unnoticed by Tony who smirked beneath his mask. Once he dropped Clint on the roof he landed beside him and lifted his visor up his smirk still on his face. "So you and Raven huh?"

Clint looked at Tony askance, "What are you talking about?"

Tony snorted, "You know for a guy with the eyes of a hawk you can be as blind as a bat to what's right in front of you. I really hope Pepper won't be watching the news. She's a great girlfriend but she worries far too much." He left after that commented making Clint wonder what Tony was trying to tell him.

Meanwhile back on the ground Steve was finishing giving instructions out. "Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You've got the lightning light the bastards up." Thor flew off and Steve turned to Natasha. "You, me and the twins, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk, smash!" Hulk grinned as Raven and Nigel headed off to take care of some Chitauri soldiers further down the street.


	10. Chapter 10

Raven threw a couple of her needle like knives into some Chitauri soldiers that dropped right after. _There's no end to them. We need to get that portal closed somehow soon. _She looked over at Nigel who was breaking an enemy's neck. "You alright?" Raven asked her twin smiling.

"Never better," Nigel grinned. "You?"

"Great. Think you can handle things down here?"

"Yeah why?"

"I'm heading to the roofs then," Raven replied pointing up. "Try to stop them before they reach the streets."

Nigel smiled, "Good idea. As long as you leave some for me."

"I'll do my best," Raven said. She waved and ran up the fire escape onto the roof. She saw several Chitauri land on her and she smirked, "So who's first?" She ran at the Chitauri knives flashing. Soon the roof was cleared of standing Chitauri. Raven jumped over to the next roof and when she landed she knocked some of them down to Nigel on the street. "Incoming Nigel."

"Thanks Rae." Nigel's voice came to her over the comm.

"No problem," Raven replied throwing some of her knives before whippy a couple others out and attacking the Chitauri that were shooting at her. She hissed in pain as one of the Chitauri sliced her left arm. Raven snarled, spun on her right leg, and smacked the soldier with the rose on her braid. It embedded itself in the Chitauri's neck killing it instantly.

Raven attacked one of the other Chitauri with her knife and they traded blows as she heard Clint saying, "Well they can't bank worth a damn."

_What is he talking about? _Raven wondered wincing as she killed the Chitauri she was fighting but another one had shot her in the back. She fell forward as she felt a searing pain along the back of her right ribs. _Bloody hell that hurt! _Raven swore softly as she rolled over pulling her gun out. She shot the Chitauri that were on the roof and sat up. _I really don't like guns. You have far less control over them. _Raven stood up grimacing slightly.

She heard Tony over the radio, "Nice call what else you got?"

"Well Thor's taking on a squadron down on sixth," Clint's voice came back.

"And he didn't invite me," Tony replied.

"Well of course he didn't Tony," Raven told Tony. "You rarely ever get an invite since you just crash whatever party you feel like."

"Really Raven?!" Tony protested causing Clint and Nigel to chuckle. "Did you have to butt in like that?"

"No I didn't have to, I felt like it," Raven replied smiling. Tony snorted in annoyance.

"I swear you are so frustrating," Tony groaned and Raven could practically hear him roll his eyes.

"That's rich coming from you," Raven shot back as she ran along the rooftops. She didn't see any Chitauri on the roofs she was on and Tony had lapsed into an annoyed silence. Raven figured he was just sulking. She slowed to a stop on a roof which it turns out was the one that Clint was on. She sat down on part of the roof to catch her breath and rest her aching back when she saw Natasha riding one of the enemy hovercrafts and Clint near where she was sitting.

"What are you doing Nat?" Clint asked confused. Natasha said something and Raven noticed Loki was chasing her on another hovercraft. "I got him." Clint told Natasha nocking an arrow to his bow. He drew the string back and fired the arrow right at the God of Mischief's eye. Unfortunately Loki caught the arrow just before it hit him.

"Good shot. Pity Loki caught it though," Raven told Clint smiling. Clint looked over at her slightly surprised to see her there and then he smirked as his arrow exploded knocking the Asgardian out of the air. Raven blinked in surprise and then laughed. "Nice."

"Hey Raven," Tony called.

"Oh finally done sulking are we?" Raven asked smiling. Clint rolled his eyes as he shot another Chitauri warrior down.

"There's a whole squadron of aliens on the roof right next door to you. Think you can handle it? I'm stuck on the ground dealing with two squads."

Raven chuckled, "Fine whatever." She grinned at Clint before jumping over to the next roof. Raven was just beheading the last member of that squadron when Clint's roof exploded. She felt a wrench in her gut as she heard and felt the explosion. Raven picked herself up off of the roof where she had been knocked back. She put a hand to her ringing ear and radioed Clint hoping he'd answer. "Clint?" The worry in her voice didn't go unnoticed by Nigel, Tony, or Natasha.

"I'm good," Clint voice replied after a few seconds his voice slightly tight with pain. Raven let out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding in relief.

Natasha's voice then came over the comm. "I can close it! Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!"

_Finally, _Raven thought.

"Do it!" Steve ordered.

"No, wait!" Tony countered shocking Raven.

"Tony, these things are still coming!" Nigel told Tony as Raven was about to ask Tony what the hell did he think he was doing.

"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute." Tony explained. "And I know just where to put it."

_He's not serious? _Raven wondered as she saw Tony start to fly the missile to the portal.

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip," Steve told Tony as Tony disappeared into the portal.

_Come on Tony you'd better fly back out of that portal or I'll tan your hide and wreck your lab. _Raven thought worriedly gnawing her lower lip. Steve gave the order to Natasha to close the portal after they'd been waiting for what felt like forever. Raven watched the beam that held the portal open disappear and the portal started to shrink. Just before it closed completely a red and gold suit fell through and below the line of buildings out of Raven's line of sight. She sighed in relief as Steve confirmed that Tony was alive. Raven ran down the stairs and out of the building to rejoin the others at Stark Tower of which only the A was actually left attached to the building.

They all gathered in front of an unconscious Loki the sight of which made Raven chuckle as she pictured the god of mischief being thrown around like a rag doll. Clint knelt in front of Loki and pointed his last arrow at the God's eye waiting for him to wake up. After he woke up to all the Avengers standing or in Clint's case kneeling around him Loki sat up saying, "If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now." Raven snorted and smirked as Loki was denied his drink. Not long after Loki got up a squadron of SHIELD agents arrived at the tower to take Loki into custody until Thor would take him back to Asgard the next day.

"Well that's done," Nigel said putting his arm around Raven's shoulders as Loki was led away gagged and handcuffed. "So what now?"

Tony grinned broadly, "Shawarma!"

"Gesundheit," Raven told Tony looking at him strangely.

"I don't know what that means," Tony said. "But we're going to a shawarma joint around the corner and you can't say no."

Raven rolled her eyes, "It means bless you Tony. But since you don't speak German…"

"Give the guy a break Rae," Nigel said laughing. He threw her over his shoulder to carry her out of the building.

"Nigel!" Raven protested pounding him on his back. "Put me down!"

"No not yet," Nigel replied keeping a firm grip on Raven's back to stop her from wriggling out.

Seeing that she couldn't get free without hurting Nigel, Raven sighed and crossed her arms. She glared at Clint who was smirking while Tony looked at Nigel in shock. "Dude the last time I tried that to get her out of my lab I ended up flat on my back."

Nigel chuckled, "Yeah well that's because I'm her brother and one of the two people that can actually get away with it." He grinned. "It would have been three if someone participated in these games."

Natasha smiled, "Yeah well they're just a little too childish for me."

Nigel and Clint shared a look that unnoticed by Raven since they weren't in her line of sight. Tony started complaining, "Well then who's the other?"

Nigel set Raven down who started to say, "Well it's-" before Clint went and picked her up the same way. "Clint!" He chuckled as similar protests came from Natasha who had been picked up by Nigel. Tony chuckled, watching Raven and Clint noticing that they still had noticed that the other liked them. Oh well maybe they would bond over shawarma and if not well he'd get to have some fun.

In the elevator Clint and Nigel set Raven and Natasha back on their feet because they weren't mean enough to embarrass them by carrying them like that in public. That and they really enjoyed living. Once at the shawarma joint they all learned that shawarma was a Middle Eastern sandwich made up of shaved lamb, goat, chicken, turkey, beef or any mix thereof. _So that's what shawarma is. _Raven thought as they all ordered. Nigel and Raven both got lamb as it was one of their favorite foods but since it tended to be more popular in England, they didn't get it very often.

As Raven finished off her sandwich she saw Tony lean back in his chair wiping his hands with a napkin. He smirked and threw the now balled up napkin at Clint which bounced off of him. The archer's annoyed glare at tony made Raven chuckle. Clint chucked the napkin back at Tony hitting him square on the nose. Tony was about to throw his napkin back when Raven tossed hers at him. "Fair is fair and you did start it." Tony glared at her before flicking his napkin at her. Soon there was an all out napkin war going on between Tony, Clint, Raven and Nigel who had decided to join in giving them some much needed fun after the long fight.


	11. Chapter 11

Raven walked into a deserted park by herself as Nigel and Natasha had gone out to breakfast together. Raven chuckled at h memory of Tony's face when he realized that Natasha and Nigel were together after everyone else had already figured it out. Apparently geniuses really didn't know everything like they want people think. Raven walked up to the group as Thor got ready to say his goodbyes. "Running a little late are we?" Tony teased chuckling.

Raven grinned, "No I'm just in time."

"You know with Nigel and Natasha getting together I would have thought you and Hawkeye over there would have gotten your act together.

"Say what?" Raven gasped her cheeks a faint pink.

"You heard or are you deaf as well as blind?"

Before Raven had a chance to strangle Tony, Thor walked over to say farewell to the two of them. "Farewell Friend Stark, Lady Raven." Raven's eyebrow twitched slightly at the honorific but she let it slide and smiled.

"Don't lose that mean swing Point Break," Tony told Thor smirking.

"See you around Thor," Raven said grinning. "I just hope we won't need you to come down here and hit Tony with your hammer a few times for being an idiot."

"Hey!" Tony protested as Thor chuckled.

"What?" Raven asked innocently. She smiled and walked over to stand next to Nigel as Bruce and Dr. Selvig prepped the Tesseract for transport back to Asgard. Thor nodded to everyone in a last farewell before activated the Tesseract. He and the still bound and gagged Loki disappeared in a flash of blue light. _Well now what? _Raven wondered as everyone started to branch off on their own. A second or two later Raven felt a chill run down her spine that after years of being an assassin and working for SHIELD she had come to associate with something bad was going to happen. She spun around and saw sunlight glint off of something metal that was flying through the air. Raven knew what it was instantly and she ran towards Clint crying, "Clint get down!"

Clint turned slightly when he heard Raven calling out. He started to ask, "Wha-" before Raven tackled him to the ground. Clint then sat up rubbing the back of his head from where it had smacked against the ground. "What the hell, Raven?"

"We're even now," Raven responded smirking slightly as she stood up.

Clint spotted the dagger lying at the base of a pillar that had stopped its momentum, "Thanks."

"No problem," Raven told Clint distract6edcly as she scanned the area that the dagger had come from. She shook her head, "Well there's no one there now."

Clint stood up and looked in the same direction, "Probably ran off as soon as they threw the dagger."

"Who would be fool enough to try to kill a master assassin?" Tony wondered.

Raven's eyes went wide as a thought occurred to her. She spun around to face Nigel. All of the colour drained from her face as she watched helplessly as a blade came out of Nigel's chest. Raven barely registered the fact that she screamed, "No! Nigel!" before the smirking face of her father appeared over Nigel's shoulder. He yanked his sword out of Nigel's back and vanished. Raven ran forward and caught her brother as he fell to the ground. She rested his head in her lap and one look at the wound told her that the best doctors in the world wouldn't be able to save his. There were tell-tale signs of a corrosive acid that Raven had seen her mother practicing with on snakes in their back garden. She used it when she wanted a mark to completely disappear as it slowly and painfully dissolved the flesh and bones of the victim leaving nothing left. Through her tears Raven saw Natasha and Clint kneel on either side of her and Nigel.

Nigel chuckled dryly before wincing, "I really hate that damn ninja."

Bruce was going to ask if there was anything he could do when Steve shook his head at him sadly. He had recognized the look on Raven's face as it was one that he had seen many times during the war on fellow soldiers as they watched their comrades die and knew there was nothing they could do to save them. Raven smiled weakly telling Nigel, "You and me both Nig."

Nigel covered her left hand that was resting on his shoulder with his own as he told her in Celtic, "Kill him and damn it Rae stop being a blind idiot and open your eyes to the fact that you love him and he loves you." Raven stared at Nigel in shock as she nodded hesitantly. Nigel switched back to English and told Bruce and Steve something that Raven didn't catch because her brain was still processing what Nigel had just told her. "Hey Tony keep my sister out of trouble will you?"

Tony chuckled slightly, "That's a little difficult since she is your sister and works for SHIELD."

Nigel smiled, "Alright try to keep her out too much trouble. That better?"

"It is a bit more doable yes."

Nigel smiled before coughing harshly. Natasha grabbed Nigel's right hand in both of hers as Raven stroked Nigel's forehead. "I'm not leaving just yet."

Raven smacked him lightly on the side of the head, "Don't joke about that."

"Sorry sis what else am I supposed to do?" When Raven stayed silent Nigel turned to Clint and pointed at him. "You Clint Barton better look after my sister or I'll want to know why." Clint stared at him trying to figure out what Nigel was getting at since didn't Raven like Tony. Nigel turned to Natasha and squeezed her hand intertwining their fingers, "I love you Tasha."

Natasha smiled sadly whispering, "I love you too Nigel."

Nigel smiled weakly as he reminded Raven in a low voice, "Open your eyes Rae and-" His eyes closed as he stopped breathing. Raven closed her eyes and bowed her head as tears streamed down her cheeks. Clint rested his hand on Raven's and Tony walked behind her to rest his hands on Raven and Natasha's shoulders to comfort them. Bruce and Steve bowed their heads in grief.

* * *

**Sorry about the long wait for an update. I just recently started college and I came down with writer's block but I'm going to do my best to get the last couple chapters by Halloween.**


	12. Chapter 12

The group stayed in the position that they were in for a couple hours and Nigel was completely gone before any of them moved. Raven stood up brushing Tony's hand off of her shoulder. She started to walk away as Clint grabbed her wrist standing up. "Where are you going Rae?"

"I'm leaving," Raven replied half heartedly trying to pull her wrist away as part of her didn't want Clint to let go of her.

"To do what?" Tony asked turning around as Natasha stood up looking at Raven.

"To do what Nigel wanted me to do. To take care of some unfinished business."

Natasha gasped, "Raven that's practically suicide!"

Raven looked at Natasha saying quietly, "Some has to do it and don't bother asking to come with me. I have to do this alone."

"No you don't Rae," Clint whispered as Raven turned to look at him her eyes sad.

"I'm sorry but I do." Raven leaned forward and kissed Clint softly on the lips before pulling back. "Don't follow me."

Raven turned to leave but Clint tightened his grip, "I can't let you do that."

"I'm sorry about this." Raven closed her eyes briefly before hitting one of Clint's pressure points knocking him out. She lowered him to the ground and glanced up at the others who were standing in slight shock. Raven got up and ran off towards the New York apartment she and Nigel had shared.

Once there Raven changed into a dress shirt, skirt, and jacket before pulling her hair up into a severe bun. She slipped in a pair of brown coloured contact lenses and put on a pair of glasses. Raven pulled out a SHIELD issue briefcase that would block the x-ray machine from seeing what was really in certain compartments. She strapped her knives into those pockets and packed her boots, a pair pants and a t-shirt into it. Then she slipped her money, credit cards, and her European Union passport into an outside pocket. Raven left her apartment locking the door behind her as she called a taxi to take her to the airport.

At the airport Raven walked up to a British Airways ticket booth and smiled at the attendant. "I need a ticket on the earliest flight to London you have. My boss just called and said he needs me there as soon as possible for a very important business meeting." Her voice was laced with a French accent.

"Let me check," the attendant smiled turning to his computer. "We have a flight that leaves in 45 minutes."

"That's perfect," Raven handed him her passport.

"Do you have any bags you need to check in?"

"No I just have my carryon."

Well then enjoy your flight." The attendant handed her back her passport with her boarding pass tucked inside. Raven smiled and walked over to security, briefcase in one hand and her passport in the other. At security Raven took off her jacket and shoes and placed them in a bucket on the conveyor belt behind her briefcase. When it was her turn she walked through the metal detector and gathered up her belongings none of which had set off any alarm bells. Raven found her gate and got there just as they were beginning to board. She smiled faintly glad she didn't have to wait around forever. Once she had boarded Raven put her briefcase in the overhead locker and after pulling out a notepad and a pen she sat down to wait for the plane to take off.

* * *

Clint groaned as he opened his eyes to see Natasha and the rest of the Avengers looking at him. He sat up holding his head, "What hit me?"

"Your girlfriend," Tony told him crossing his arms. "And if she isn't then she should be and you're blind and you need to get your act in gear."

Clint stared at Tony as Steve rested a hand on Tony's shoulder saying, "Take it easy Tony."

"T-take it easy?" Tony spluttered. "How am I supposed to take it easy when some psycho just murdered Nigel, one of my best friends and Raven just took off without a word?"

"Where did she go to anyway?" Bruce asked. "It doesn't seem like Raven to just disappear like that."

"She wouldn't have-" Natasha asked Clint softly.

"She did," Clint growled as he stood up. Natasha's eyes went wide and then narrowed. They were about to leave when Tony stopped them.

"Where are you two going?"

"You're going after Raven aren't you?" Bruce wondered.

Natasha sighed and turned around, "After Raven to stop her from doing something stupid."

"We're coming with you." Steve said. "She's a part of this team same as all of us."

"You don't need to do that." Clint replied turning around.

"Actually yes," Tony replied. "I promised Nigel I'd try to keep Raven out of too much trouble. SO I'm going."

"So where's she headed?" Bruce asked.

Clint sighed, "England."

"England," Tony repeated. "Alright so we're just going to go to the nearest airport and catch the earliest possible flight to London which might not be for several hours? That's your plan? Not a great plan." When the others just looked at him, he put his hands up in exasperation. "Who's the billionaire here? Tell you what. We stop by Stark Tower, I explain to Pepper what's going on and then we take my private jet to England. No muss, no fuss."

Clint and Natasha looked at each other and shrugged. "Well it would save time." Natasha admitted. Tony smirked and got into his car.

Back at Stark Tower Clint was pacing back and forth while Tony was explaining things to Pepper who had a few tears running down her cheeks when she heard about Nigel's death. The billionaire had offered Clint and the others a drink which they had declined. Clint had passed the Loki shaped dent in the floor several times and it normally would have made a smirk appear on his face as he pictured the Hulk tossing the God of Mischief around like a rag doll. Of course these weren't normal circumstances.

Natasha briefly considered telling Clint to stop beating himself up about the whole incident but she knew it was pointless because she was doing the same thing in her own way. "So why England?" Steve asked as Tony walked over after kissing Pepper goodbye.

"Hey Legolas. I know the Tower needs a lot of repairs but I'd rather not have to fix two dents in the floor." Tony asked trying to be lighthearted before he turned more serious. "So yeah why England? Why not Paris, the Bahamas, or the Caribbean?"

"That's where the-" Natasha said some very unflattering words in Russian that did not need to be translated, "-most likely went."

"Alright but how does Raven know that?"

Clint sighed, "Not now."

"Right on the jet." Tony replied turning to go. "What are we standing around here for then?" Clint and Natasha shared exasperated looks before they left.


	13. Chapter 13

"Could I get you anything to drink?" One of the flight attendants asked Raven who looked up from her notebook.

"Just some water sil vous plaît." Raven smiled and thanked the attendant as she passed her a cup of ice water. She set it down on her tray after taking a drink and turned back to her notebook. The first page was a list of addresses in and around London. Raven sighed and wrote down the last address. She glanced over the list making sure she had gotten them all before clo0sing the book and putting her pencil own. Raven turned on the TV that was in the back of the seat in front of her and started flipping through the movies. Most were ones she had never even heard of because they just weren't interesting or in the case of one that she saw briefly were sappy love stories. Raven's channel surfing stopped briefly on _The Hunger Games _which under normal circumstances she might be tempted to watch but right now it was the last thing she wanted to see. It brought up too many memories, reasons why her ledger was as red as Clint's or Natasha's, plus Raven didn't need her emotions to be in even more of tumult than they already were for a certain archer and the sight of another archer would definitely make that happen by bringing up memories.

Raven was just starting to drift off when she remembered the look on Clint's face when she looked at him after saying she was going after her father. She sighed and sat up pulling her notebook out again. She wrote a quick note thinking to herself, _You never listen when I tell you not to follow me Clint. _She smiled slightly to herself.

* * *

Clint eyed the fancy interior of Tony's private jet with slight distaste as he refused the drink Tony was offering him. He glanced around at the other Avengers and saw that Bruce and Steve looked decidedly uncomfortable while Natasha was completely closed off and emotionless. Clint knew her well enough to know that she was putting up her walls to stop herself from falling completely to pieces. Tony's voice snapped Clint out of his daze, "So how does Raven know to head to England in order to find that ninja from earlier?" This made Steve and Bruce sit up in interest.

Clint glanced over at Natasha but when he saw that she wasn't about to start talking he sighed, "Raven and 'that ninja' have a history together. She knows where his hideouts are. Most of them are in London though I'm sure there is more that Natasha and I don't know about."

"What kind of history?" Steve asked warily.

Clint glanced at Natasha hoping that she would explain but she just smirked and said, "You know they won't stop asking until they are given some sort of explanation but I don't plan to risk Rae's wrath."

"Oh sure but you'll let me suffer by myself."

"I'm fairly sure that she'll go easier on you than the rest of us."

Clint rolled his eyes thinking, _That makes me feel _so _much better _before saying out loud, "That man's name is Damian Moviarty." The three who hadn't known prior to then gasped in shock. "Yes he is Raven and Nigel's father. He and their mother Belinda were professional assassins that lived in London. Raven and Nigel refused to join the family business when they found out so they instead chose to move out. Their parents didn't take kindly to that as they felt it was an insult and a danger to their livelihoods. Belinda Moviarty was eventually taken out but Damian disappeared until earlier today."

"That actually explains a lot," Tony mused. "Wait why did she say that you were even now after she tackled you?"

"I'd saved her from a poisoned dart the same way not long after we'd first met," Clint shrugged causing Tony to raise an eyebrow.

"So Raven's chasing after her assassin father, who just killed her twin brother, by herself?" Steve asked. "I'm sure you guys go after dangerous targets for SHIELD but isn't that a bad idea?"

"Completely idiotic," Natasha muttered. "Which is why we're going after her even though she told us not to." _What I've noticed is every time she tells us not to follow her she ends up in trouble._

"So where would Raven go?" Bruce asked and Clint started to list the various places that he knew with Natasha adding her opinions occasionally.

* * *

**Sorry it's so short but this chapter gave me a lot of trouble and kinda seems to be more of a filler.**


	14. Chapter 14

As soon as the seatbelt sign turned off Raven was off the plane and on the subway to the first location on her list. There were only a few people boarding the same empty car as Terminal 5 was the first stop on that subway line. A short while later she disembarked and after changing into her more convenient outfit she had packed, Raven walked to the first of her old homes. She let herself in silently and disabled the alarm system. The first thing she noticed as she slipped from room to room was the thick layer of dust that lay over everything. _Well he's obviously not here. _She dropped a few smoke bombs to slowly make the flat look like it was on fire and left the building.

Raven stood in the main room of the twelfth of her old homes. She sighed looking around the flat. It was the same as all the others that she had visited so far, completely empty with at least an inch of dust coating every surface. _Well unless he got a new hideout, he'll be at the country house which is funny because that one was always my favorite out of all of them. _Unfortunately she was out of smoke bombs but seeing as the neighbors had little kids Raven figured it would be best if they didn't think there was a fire.

She went down to the lobby and stopped by the front desk. "Hey Susie, would you mind giving this to my friend Clint Barton?" She handed her notebook to the receptionist with a smile. Raven had clipped a photo of her and Nigel with Clint and Natasha from about a year or so ago.

"The cutie standing next to you? Sure thing, sweetheart."

"Thanks. He'll be here at some point I'm just not exactly sure when and I have to go."

"No problem love." Raven waved and left the building. She caught a taxi out to the country estate her family owned. She thanked the driver, paid him, and got out. Raven started to slowly walk up the drive and was just out of sight of the road when her father stepped out of the trees to stand in front of her.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up," he drawled smirking as he spun his sword in lazy circles.

"Since when did you use poison?" Raven snapped glad she'd found him and didn't have to hunt all over the extensive grounds to finish what she and Nigel had started. She slid two of her knives into her hands bringing them up into a fighting stance. She had long ago strapped her knives back on and the briefcase she left just inside the gates in one of her favorite hiding spots just in case she needed it again.

"Just that once. I wanted him to suffer and didn't want that doctor spoiling my plans."

"You're sick," Raven growled as she blocked Damian's attack with one knife while she swiped at him with the other just scratching his arm since he jumped back quickly. Just as quickly he lunged at Raven forcing her to do a back handspring to get out of the way.

The next half hour or so passed in pretty much the same way with neither of them able to land a fatal blow. Raven had several cuts the worst of which were one on her stomach and another on her thigh that prevented her from putting too much weight on her right leg. _Gotta end this soon before I lose too much more blood, _Raven thought as her back hit a tree, _Ah crap. _Damian smirked and stabbed at Raven with his sword. At that moment though, Raven's leg gave out on her causing her to crash to the ground and her father's sword to lodge itself in the tree. Raven pulled out one of her knives from its hip holster as it was quicker than feeling for her other knives that had fallen out of her hands during her sudden fall. She threw it and watched in satisfaction as the knife buried itself in Damian's throat. He was able to shoot her a glare full of hatred before crumbling down to the ground dead. "Finally," Raven breathed before drifting into unconsciousness.

* * *

Clint sat in the car that for some odd reason Tony owned all the way in England, he suspected the billionaire had just bought it not long before they landed. He looked out of the window to see Natasha coming back from inquiring what had happened because when they had reached the closest address to Heathrow that the SHIELD agents knew of there were a couple cop cars and fire trucks outside as well as several nervous looking bystanders. "So what happened Nat?" Clint asked as soon as Natasha was in the car.

"The police said that it was smoke coming from the burnt dinner that was in the oven."

"Seriously? That's the best they could come up with?" Tony asked incredulously typing something on his phone.

"Well the firemen all said that there was no fire just smoke. Raven obviously didn't find what she was looking for here."

"Then she didn't find it at most of the locations on your list," JARVIS's voice piped up from Tony's phone.

"What do you mean JARVIS?" Tony asked while Bruce and Steve looked at each other in confusion.

"While trying to find the fastest route to hit all the locations you gave me I noticed that all except for one were showing up as places where emergency services were headed."

"Well it looks like we're heading to the one that didn't," Natasha said noticing that Clint hadn't said a single word. She leaned over to him and whispered softly, "We'll find her." Clint nodded sharply as Tony started driving.

As soon as the car was parked Clint and Natasha were out and in the building following the plan they'd come up with while on the flight. The two SHIELD agents would go in first and make sure the coast was clear before calling the others in. They were just passing by the front desk when Susie noticed Clint. She spoke up, "Mr. Barton? I have a package here for you from Miss Moviarty."

Clint had turned around about to tell the woman that he was sorry but she must be mistaken but at the sound of Raven's name that thought went straight out of his head. He walked over to the desk, "Yes?"

"Here you go," she passed him the notebook and picture. "Miss Moviarty dropped this off before she left."

"Thank you," Natasha told Susie before she could say anything else. She tugged Clint towards the door. Once they were outside she turned to Clint. "What's in the book?"

Clint was flipping through the first couple of pages since they were the only ones with writing. "A list of addresses but all except one have been crossed out."

"So that's where she'll be," Natasha reasoned. "Is there anything else?"

Clint chuckled dryly, "Just a note that starts out scolding us." Natasha held out her hand for the notebook. When she read Raven's note she was forced to roll her eyes and chuckle slightly.

"She knows us almost too well."

"Care to share?" Tony asked from where he was leaning against the hood of his car.

Natasha sighed and started to read, "Clint I told you and Natasha not to follow me-" Tony snorted at that earning himself a glare from Natasha. "Tony you really shouldn't have tagged along same goes for you Bruce, Steve. But if you're reading this you obviously didn't listen and are here in London. Well since there's nothing I can do about that, I'll see you at the first address that isn't crossed off. Raven. P.S. Oh you should know 25663 just in case."

"A random string of numbers so helpful," Tony muttered.

"Sounds like a code," Steve commented glaring at Tony.

"What's the address?" Bruce interrupted them before they could start arguing yet again. Natasha passed the notebook to him so that he could plug it into the GPS. Once they all got back into the car they were.

"Well this is the place," Bruce said as they got out of the car at the gate.

"And we aren't taking the car up to the house because-?" Tony wanted to know.

"Because we don't know what's between here and there," Steve replied as Bruce got his medical bag out of the car's boot. Natasha and Clint walked down the drive eyes darting around for anything that seemed to be out of place. Clint put his hand out to stop Natasha and pointed to where the gravel was scraped away. Natasha nodded and followed the trail into the trees. Both SHIELD agents froze at the sight they saw there.

"Bruce," Natasha called her voice shaky. Bruce showed up next to her and one look at the scene on the ground moved him into action. He knelt beside Raven's still body and put two fingers on her neck to feel for a pulse.

"She's alive. Tony, go get the car so we can get her to a hospital."

"Whoa bad idea," Natasha interrupted," she goes ballistic if she's in the hospital or an infirmary."

Bruce sighed and nodded," Fine we'll take her to the house. The car will be faster." Tony nodded and went to get the car. Bruce wrapped some bandages around the worst of Raven's wounds to slow the bleeding.

"Natasha, Clint," Steve said turning to the two of them. "Let's get the house opened up." Natasha and Clint nodded knowing that was all that they could do at that moment.

They reached the house at the same time as Tony and Bruce. Natasha decided to just shoot the lock off the door. She and Steve went to search the house while Clint deactivated the alarm with the code Raven had left. When Tony came in carrying Raven, Natasha directed him to the medical room she'd found. Tony laid Raven on the bed and they were all shooed out of the room by Bruce who got to work stitching up raven's wounds and giving her a transfusion of O negative blood that was in the medical refrigerator.

* * *

**One more chapter left unfortunately. though once i finish this I'm going to be starting on a Transformers Avengers crossover with Tony's younger twin sisters. **


	15. Chapter 15

Raven groaned and opened her eyes. Almost instantly she shut her eyes slightly and covered them with a hand. She started to sit up grumbling, "Stupid bright light," when a hand landed on her shoulder to push her back against the pillows.

"Take it easy Raven," Bruce chided. "You've been unconscious for at least four hours." Raven shot him a glare as she put her hand down her eyes now adjusted to the light.

"Where-"

"You're in the medical room of your house not a hospital," Bruce told Raven as he turned back to what he was doing.

"Actually I was going to ask where everyone else was," Raven responded getting out of the bed and stretching gently. "I know I'm not in a hospital because a. there's no antiseptic smell and b. there's no annoying heart monitor beeping."

Bruce glanced over and, seeing that she was out of bed, turned around arms crossed over his chest. "Raven you're in no condition to be up and about."

"That's kind of you but if I can run and fight with three broken ribs, a concussion, and a bullet lodged in my shoulder, I think I can handle walking around with a few stitches."

"More like twenty. Three in your arm, seven in your stomach and nine in your thigh."

"Is that all?"

"You're stubborn."

"I know. I've been told that multiple times." Raven smiled and walked out of the room and into the living room. She smirked when she saw Tony rummaging through the cabinets and the pantry. "Sorry Tony there's no alcohol in the house."

Tony spun around, "Damn. What are you doing out of medical Raven?"

"Don't need to be there. Besides I wanted to see my friends instead of being stuck in a hospital bed." Natasha and Steve stood up from where they were sitting.

Tony chuckled and put his arm around Raven's shoulders. "So I take it Dr. Banner didn't release you?" Steve asked smiling.

"Of course he didn't," Natasha replied causing Raven to smirk. "She has a notoriously bad habit of leaving medical before she's released."

Raven shrugged, "What can I say they're boring."

Bruce chuckled from the doorway, "and like I said before you're stubborn."

Raven smiled as Steve said, "It's good to have you back Raven."

"Just don't run off like that again. I'd rather not have to deal with an even more temperamental Stark-" Natasha said seriously but with a small smile.

"Hey!" Tony protested interrupting Natasha causing Raven to chuckle.

"It's true," Natasha replied slightly irritated at the interruption. "As I was saying I'd rather not deal with a more temperamental Stark but I will not have to deal with a freaking out and pissed off archer." Raven flushed and Tony opened his mouth to voice his confusion. Natasha knew what he was going to say and, before he could get the words out, said "Clint has more subtle ways of displaying his emotions Tony. Raven, Clint's not happy that you knocked him out and ran off so I suggest you get out to the target range and talk to him.

"You might want to tell him how you feel as well since it was obvious even before we were at the park," Tony added smirking as Raven blushed. She turned around and headed outside.

At the target range Raven leaned up against a fence post. She called Clint's name several times but he was too preoccupied shooting his arrows at the target to hear her. She smirked and slipped behind him stealing all but one of his arrows out of his quiver, placed them on the wooden bench nearby and stood back to wait for him to notice. When his hand felt for an arrow that should have been there but found nothing but air Raven laughed, "Looking for something." Clint spun around to see Raven smiling. "I had to get your attention somehow since you couldn't hear me calling your name and I didn't feel like waiting for you to finish." Next thing she knew Clint's lips were on hers his hands cupping her face. He broke off the kiss much too soon in Raven's opinion and pulled her into a strong embrace.

"Don't ever do that to me again," Clint breathed into her hair.

"Do what? Steal your arrows?" Raven asked cheekily.

Clint pulled back to look Raven in the eyes, "No don't run off on me like that. Don't go hunting down some psycho killer that's out to get you."

"I still work for SHIELD Clint. I think I might still have to do that. "Though I will let you know beforehand."

Clint chuckled slightly, "I guess that'll work. You doing alright?"

"Yeah just needed a few stitched." Clint rubbed his hand up and down Raven's arm as she looked at the ground trying to get herself back under control the way she'd been trained. _Ah forget it. _She leaned into Clint's chest her hands gripping his hoodie as she sobbed. Clint put his arms back around her and stroked her back comfortably.

After a few minutes Raven calmed down and started to wipe away her tears but Clint beat her to it using his thumb to gently brush away her tears that remained on her cheeks. He smiled slightly and said, "You know I still haven't taught you to shoot."

"Didn't know you were planning on it," Raven replied smiling slightly causing Clint to chuckle as he retrieved all his arrows. He placed them back in his quiver and held his hand to Raven.

"Well come on." Raven smiled and let Clint pull her over to the target range. "Alright so stand perpendicular to the target, feet shoulder width apart." He smirked before teasing, "And no slouching."

Raven turned her head to narrow her eyes playfully at Clint, "Hey I only slouch when I want to sit comfortably in a chair."

Clint chuckled, "I know. I was just messing with you." He took her left hand and gently wrapped it around the bow. "Hold the bow just like that, not too tight, not too loose." He brought an arrow out of his quiver and brought his arm around Raven to load the arrow. "The arrow sits on the rest here," he pointed to the arrow rest as he continued, "when you nock the arrow on the string you want to make sure that it's straight otherwise it won't fly straight. Now you always want the odd fletching facing out or it could get torn off when the arrow is released."

"Gotcha," Raven said nodding.

"Good now pull the string back with one finger slightly above the arrow and two just below and anchor it to your mouth." He chuckled when Raven looked over her shoulder at him with an eyebrow raised in confusion. "Touch your thumb to the corner of your mouth." Raven smiled and nodded. Clint rested his hands on her shoulders. "Relax your shoulders. Breath in and release." Raven let go of the string and watched as the arrow hit the target about an inch and a half from the bullseye. "Not bad for your first time shooting. Can't have you beating me at my own game."

Raven laughed as she turned around to face him, "Worried?" She set the bow down.

"Maybe slightly," Clint replied as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Good," Raven replied as she went to kiss him.

"Hey lovebirds!" Tony called interrupting them.

Raven pulled back to glare at Tony while muttering, "He's so dead."

Clint chuckled, "What do you want Tony?"

"We're having a movie night, tonight before we go back to the states tomorrow. So get in the house before I have Natasha drag you both in here."

Raven sighed, "Fine." Clint replaced the arrow in his quiver and took Raven's hand as they walked in.

"Well it's about time," Natasha commented sling. Raven made a face at Natasha while Clint put his bow and quiver by the door. He sat down on the couch next to Raven and put his arm around her waist. Natasha and Tony started arguing over what movie to watch and Raven chuckled.

"We'll be here a while," She leant her head on Clint's shoulder.

"Only until Tasha decides to threaten Tony," Clint replied kissing Raven.

* * *

**Well that's the last chapter unfortunately. I never thought I'd get the response I did for this story which is actually the first story I've finished. I've started a new story called Twin Opposites with Tony's younger twin sisters in a Transformers and Avengers crossover. The prologue is up for it.**


End file.
